Damaging mediums, such as liquids, may damage a semiconductor device, such as an integrated circuit (IC) and/or semiconductor processing systems (e.g., semiconductor fabrication tools or equipment that process semiconductor devices). This damage may be caused, for example, by corrosion of metal parts of the semiconductor processing system or short-circuiting between electrodes of the semiconductor processing system. Semiconductor processing systems may be exposed to liquids due to a leak in a pipe or other structure that carries liquid, or dew condensation that occurs when a temperature at or inside of a semiconductor processing system goes down to a temperature below a dew point of circumambient air.
The semiconductor industry has made significant advancements in its pursuit of higher device density with lower cost. Technological advances have produced progressively smaller and more complex circuits. In the course of semiconductor device fabrication evolution, functional density (for example, the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry sizes have decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs.
However, increased functional density has increased the complexity of semiconductor devices and semiconductor processing systems, such as by decreasing the size and increasing the sensitivity of semiconductor devices. This increased complexity and sensitivity may be directly related to susceptibility to damage from exposure to damaging mediums, such as damage from a liquid (e.g., liquid damage). Current sensory apparatuses for detecting liquids during semiconductor processing using semiconductor processing systems are restricted to a local area, such as a specific chamber of semiconductor processing system, and do not provide sensory data across larger areas or smaller spaces that may be exposed to liquid. Therefore, conventional systems for semiconductor device processing (e.g., fabrication) are not entirely satisfactory.